Discovering your Online Identity
An online identity is a social
identity that a user establishes in online communities and websites
("Online identity", 2010). From the first time you log on to a social
networking site like Facebook, tweet a message on Twitter, or post a comment on
your favourite blog, you're creating an online identity. The more content we
contribute to social media sites, the more we grow our online identity.
I have been active on social media
for over 4 years now, I created my first social media profile on Orkut in 2009
which was very famous at that time amongst my friends and since after that I
have been using social media daily to be in touch with my friends and have
created a lot of webpages online by registering to Facebook google+, In short I
use social media not only for personal use but also to connect with people professionally.
When I searched myself on google and Bing with the keyword "Dilshad
Shaikh" the only relevant result I found was from LinkedIn besides that
there were number of other people with the same name and a guy who is a famous
composer in India. I have been using LinkedIn for over a year now and I have
updated all of my career details with my profile image and the details of what I
did till now professionally and since my profile was open to anyone with the
internet access. they could find out what I did in my career till now, well
given the fact that I knew the information provided by me will be visible on
the internet I was not shocked of the fact that this information can be found
easily but I was astonished to see that the google didn't returned my Facebook
and my domain webpage on the top list. But when I tried googling my username
which is "Dilshadsk" it returned a lot of result which was
appropriate to my profile such as Instagram, my own personal website i.e.
www.dilshadsk and also my linked profile. after checking out the result I can
say most of the details which I have added on my social media profile only was
available for the people to see online but I have restricted some information
on my Facebook page which is associated with my profile using the privacy
settings such as my post, pictures, interests and friend list, so most of the
information I found on internet was only related to my professional profile
with only one of my professional image.
Once something is on the Internet,
it is there permanently. Even if you wanted to remove it, chances are it has
already been copied and archived on several other machines and passed around so
many times that you'll never be able to remove every copy. That's why you
should always think really hard about something before you publish it on the
Internet.
So we would want to build up our positive
online presence considering few simple steps.
To Claim online name: When you
create accounts, use your first and last name instead of a made-up screen name –
e.g. “Dilshad8799” this will help you to have an access to what details you add
under your username and also to be consistent with Username. Using the same
name everywhere so your name becomes your brand, Use a service such as Knowem,
a website where you can check whether your name is available on dozens of
social networks and websites. If you have a common name -- if you share a name
with a public figure, your name may be taken. In that case, add your middle
name or initial to your online identity,
Link to yourself: One way to show
people you’re legit is by linking your social media persona to other online
accounts -- a website if you have one, or a bio on your employer’s website or
organization where you’re a member or volunteer. But be careful. There’s a fine
line between sharing enough to confirm who you are and giving away information
a thief could use to impersonate you to get a fake ID or open a bank account,
according to security experts.
Start a wiki under your name:
Creating a wiki page about yourself also gives an advantage to increase your
chances of being indexed on the main page when searched and it will rank high
for you. We can could turn the wiki into a resume, a list of your favorite
things to do or a listing of websites.
Blogging: write more articles on
web blogs on different topic using online name.
Find out what people are saying
about you. Keep tabs on your online identity by doing regular Google searches
of your name to see what turns up. Set up alerts on Google, Yahoo or other
search engines to get daily or weekly notices when your name’s mentioned.
What we publish can be traced back
to you and reflects our personal character. It's becoming a very common
practice for colleges and workplaces to look up potential students and job
applicants to find out what kind of person they are, and many people have been
turned down because of what they put on the Internet. Instead, why not we use
your Internet permanent record to our advantage? Making sure that the only
things published by or about us online are good things. Things that show we are
an honest, considerate, hard-working person, and someone a college or employer
would be honored to have as part of their organization.
References
Carnegiecyberacademy. What is Your Online Identity?
Retrieved From http://www.carnegiecyberacademy.com/facultyPages/communication/identity.html
Online identity. (2010, July 14). In Wikipedia, the Free
Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:28, August 3, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=373510435
Schawbel, D. (2009). How to Take Control of Your Google
Search Results. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/control-google-search-results/
Kimberly Fenton February (21, 2014). Multiple Online
Identities: Good or Bad? Retrieved from https://kimberlyfenton.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/multiple-online-identities-good-or-bad/
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